Field of the Invention
The present disclosure generally relates to information processing and, more particularly, to an information processing apparatus having a touch panel capable of detecting a multi-touch operation, an information processing method in the information processing apparatus, and a storage medium.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, an information processing apparatus having a touch panel capable of detecting a multi-touch operation to enable an intuitive operation by a user has been widely used. A multi-touch operation performed on this touch panel includes a pinch-in and a pinch-out.
An electrostatic touch panel is widely known as a touch panel capable of detecting a multi-touch operation. A conventional resistance film type (pressure-sensitive type) touch panel capable of detecting only one point (single touch) even when the user touches a plurality of points at the same time. On the other hand, an electrostatic touch panel is capable of detecting a plurality of points touched at the same time by the user.
To achieve a multi-touch operation, it is necessary not only to employ a touch panel capable of detecting a multi-touch operation (hereinafter referred to as a new touch panel) but also to implement a support of a multi-touch event by an application operating on an information processing apparatus. More specifically, even if an application developed for a touch panel (hereinafter referred to as a conventional touch panel) capable of detecting only a single touch operation (hereinafter referred to as a conventional application) is installed on an information processing apparatus having a new touch panel, the application does not support a multi-touch operation unless the implementation of the application is modified. This is because, even if a multi-touch event detected by a new touch panel is transmitted to a conventional application not supporting a multi-touch event, the conventional application is unable to identify the event. Further, since a multi-touch event transmission to a conventional application not supporting a multi-touch event is a useless event transmission, the multi-touch event transmission may affect the performance of the entire information processing apparatus.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2014-63515 discusses a technique in which a flag for determining whether to transmit a multi-touch event is prepared and, when this flag is OFF, a multi-touch event detected by a touch panel is not transmitted to an application.
In the technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2014-63515, even if a user performs a multi-touch operation on a new touch panel capable of detecting a multi-touch operation, the event is not transmitted to a conventional application not supporting a multi-touch event. Therefore, it is possible to prevent performance degradation in an information processing apparatus due to a transmission of an event which cannot be identified by the conventional application. On the other hand, operating a conventional application on a new touch panel may cause the following problem.
A specific example will be described below. Generally, when performing an operation for selecting a virtual button (hereinafter referred to as a button) displayed on a touch panel, a user touches the button with one finger. The touch panel detects the operation as a single touch event, and notifies the conventional application of the event. The conventional application performs a predetermined operation based on the single touch event.
On the other hand, some elderly persons touch a button with two fingers, not with one finger. Such an elderly person may touch a button with two fingers such as the index and the middle fingers in contact with each other. In this case, even when the user touches a resistance film type touch panel with a plurality of fingers at the same time, it detects only one point as a single touch event, as described above. More specifically, the resistance film type touch panel detects a single touch event based on the coordinates of the middle point between the two touched points. As a result, the conventional application is notified of the single touch event, and is able to perform a predetermined operation based on the single touch event.
On the other hand, when the user performs the same operation (an operation for selecting a button with two fingers) on a new touch panel, the new touch panel detects the operation as a multi-touch event, not as a single touch event. Therefore, the conventional application does not perform an operation based on the user operation.
More specifically, if a conventional application is installed on an information processing apparatus having a new touch panel, there may arise a situation where the conventional application does not operate even if the user performs the same operation as a conventional one. This situation may arise, for example, when the user replaces an information processing apparatus having a conventional touch panel with an information processing apparatus having a new touch panel. This situation may be a major problem in an image forming apparatus having a scanner function, a print function, etc., since importance is attached to enabling applications to operate on any hardware component without modifying applications.